June 22, 2014

DUBLIN (AP) — In stories published June 3 and June 8 about young children buried in unmarked graves after dying at a former Irish orphanage for the children of unwed mothers, The Associated Press incorrectly reported that the children had not received Roman Catholic baptisms; documents show that many children at the orphanage were baptized. The AP also incorrectly reported that Catholic teaching at the time was to deny baptism and Christian burial to the children of unwed mothers; although that may have occurred in practice at times it was not church teaching. In addition, in the June 3 story, the AP quoted a researcher who said she believed that most of the remains of children who died there were interred in a disused septic tank; the researcher has since clarified that without excavation and forensic analysis it is impossible to know how many sets of remains the tank contains, if any. The June 3 story also contained an incorrect reference to the year that the orphanage opened; it was 1925, not 1926.

Other than that, as James Taranto likes to say, the story was accurate. Well, possibly.

"poorly heated and ventilated rooms" In Ireland? in the 30's? imagine that. No proper heating and venting, just like absolutely everyone else. How terrible."forcing them to live stacked like cord wood" "feeding them next to nothing." Citation needed, I've read nothing about the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home that makes those allegations.Good work with the unfounded allegations and smears though, are you aiming for a job with AP?

Geez, it's the CATHOLICS. Oh, you can say any dang thing you want about them, doncha know ~ even more so than your average "Christians". Because they don't lop heads off, slit throats, blow your car up...and they're the root of all ee-ville. EVERYBODY hates them!

As the firebreathing, West Virginia grandmother pronounces in my favorite line out of the book "Addie" says: "The Catholic Church is THE WH0RE OF BABYLON!!!"

The Catholic Church always gets into trouble when it achieves some measure of government or secular control and tries to implement socialist policies. But, to give it credit, it generally does (and historically has done) a far better job than the socialists do.

As far as taking care of widows and orphans is concerned, there has always been room for improvement. We can do better regardless of who is at fault.

Hm. Not to whitewash actual historical events, but we seem very prone to dismiss the millions of victims of socialist regimes and the current victims of religious (Islamic) fanaticism while flogging the Catholic Church on much sketchier evidence.

We? Who here is dismissing the millions of victims of socialist regimes, or the current victims of religious fanaticism? And the evidence in this particular case is not sketchy at all. With respect to flogging the Catholic Church, that organization has been for some time now in the self-flagellation business over the scandal of how it has treated children, driven by a somewhat tardy collective guilty conscience. For example, I invite you to read the "Pastoral letter of the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, to the Catholics of Ireland" :

Sorry, but this is pretty weak push back to a story that was and continues to be about - and I quote the Archbishop of Dublin - "the whole culture of mother baby homes" in the catholic church. That the AP mixed into this sordid story garbled baptism details does invite us to think that the reporter was embellishing to stir the pot. Nonetheless, the basic story is disturbing enough. An earlier story in the Daily Mail just gives the facts (saying nothing about baptism, by the way), and nothing in the body of the story about septic tanks - but then the headline mentions a septic tank, foolishly gilding the lily of this already creepy scandal:

For those trying piously to squeeze some self-satisfied solace out of these AP corrections, please note that the story of mass graves of infants buried by holy church functionaries is not going away. I give you the Archbishop of Dublin himself:

"The indications are that if something happened in Tuam it probably happened in other mother-and-baby homes around the country," Archbishop Martin told state radio. "That's why I believe we need a full-bodied investigation." Any investigation that focused on a single site would set the stage for a drip-drip of new revelations. "There's no point investigating just what happened in Tuam and then next year finding out more. We have to look at the whole culture of mother baby homes; they're talking about medical experiments there," he said. "They're very complicated and very sensitive issues, but the only way we will come out of this particular period of our history is when the truth comes out." (show less)

The story of the baby homes is, undoubtedly, going to be an horrific one once all is told. Nevertheless, the proclivity of journalists to engage in sensationalism and to report the most gruesome, outrageous narratives as "fact" only impeaches their credibility when telling a story, even one they get right (and there is no clear evidence this is a story they are getting right).

If you mean that there is no clear evidence that this is a story that they are getting perfectly right, then fine. For example, the suggestion that _all_ of the babies of unwed mothers went unbaptized. The basic sordid story, however, is in fact clear and it is disturbing. The church hierarchy in Ireland knows this, as the Archbishop testifies.

I note that someone has "reported" my original comment. I understand that the facts might upset some of the religiously minded, but I would invite the zealot to read the comment guidelines and at least give some hand-wavy indication where my comment was off topic or contained foul language.

Someone was probably trying to hit "Like" and hit "Report Abuse" instead. Since the links are next to each other (and PJMedia won't correct the template to avoid this), it happens frequently around here.

Seems that everywhere you turn, some myth about Irish persecution is found to be false. Certainly there are enough true slights to the whitest people on the planet that more need not be created. Remember the "No Irish Need Apply Signs" that were all over when Ted Kennedy was a lad? Try finding an substantial evidence of them:http://austriananarchy.blogspot.com/2014/06/that-is-not-politic.html

I guess you've never read "Angela's Ashes" for just what a GAS life was for your average-poor Irish family, who wasn't landed gentry, socially connected enough to score a meager income job or an absentee English landlord. They had it SWELL compared to orphans...

"poorly heated and ventilated rooms" In Ireland? in the 30's? imagine that. No proper heating and venting, just like absolutely everyone else. How terrible."forcing them to live stacked like cord wood" "feeding them next to nothing." Citation needed, I've read nothing about the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home that makes those allegations.Good work with the unfounded allegations and smears though, are you aiming for a job with AP?

"Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray's case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect"Michael Crichton

Geez, it's the CATHOLICS. Oh, you can say any dang thing you want about them, doncha know ~ even more so than your average "Christians". Because they don't lop heads off, slit throats, blow your car up...and they're the root of all ee-ville. EVERYBODY hates them!

As the firebreathing, West Virginia grandmother pronounces in my favorite line out of the book "Addie" says: "The Catholic Church is THE WH0RE OF BABYLON!!!"

The IRA being the exception to the rule. Religion was not the issue though it was an effect of British Rule. Catholics were usually native Irish while their Protestant brothers were either historically British or British sympathizers. The Catholic Church condemned the actions of the IRA while the modern Terrorists are given a pass or outright approval by Islam. Any excuse to bash Catholics is a good one I guess. The hatred of Catholics is hundreds of years old and still alive today.

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